Pages

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

The Shining Monadh Liath

A Blue & White World

The Monadh Liath - the grey hills - are often regarded as rather
bland and uninteresting, especially when compared with the Cairngorms (original
name Am Monadh Ruadh - the red hills) just across Strathspey.However the rolling hills of the Monadh Liath
have attractions of their own, especially for those who love feelings of space
and vastness. Here the horizons are distant and the high country rolls on
seemingly forever beneath huge skies. Under snow the Monadh Liath can be
especially magical as I found today on my first winter venture into these hills
for several years.

I'd gone to the Monadh Liath as the forecast suggested the
summits might be clear and there could even be some sunshine whilst the
Cairngorms to the east remained in thick fog. The forecasters were correct. All
day a dark boiling mass of cloud covered the Cairngorms while in the Monadh
Liath the sun shone and the sky was a deep blue with only occasional squalls
darkening the air.

Tracks

I climbed two of the four highest summits - A'Chailleach and
Carn Sgulain - but the Monadh Liath are not really about peaks (the second of
these two is just a gentle rise above the surrounding moorland) but about the
whole high level area. Low down I ploughed through sodden heather and grass on slippery,
muddy paths. Then came the first snow, soft, deep and unsupportive. Gaining
height was hard work. But once I reached the higher snowfields the world
changed. Here the snow was firm, crunching under my boots. Firm and smooth.
Instead of the wind-blasted rutted snow-ice and deep drifts I've grown used to
in the Cairngorms this winter here was a soft blanket spread evenly over the
land in gentle folds and drapes. The only marks were the long tracks of
mountain hares (I saw several) and the occasional tuft of grass or tip of a
boulder.

Clouds building over A'Chailleach

Then there was the light. And what light! The sun shining
through the clouds lit up the shape and texture of the snow. The land was white
and blue, shining and shadowed, reflecting the blue sky and the bright sunshine
and dancing with cloud patterns. The white world stretched out to infinity.
There was nothing but snow and sky, forever and forever. Or so it seemed.

Coming down to the dark glen and the bogs and mud my head
was still full of the shining world high above. The Monadh Liath had given me
the best day of the winter so far.

I was there in late September, traversed in sun and gale force winds. The plateau looks superb under snow. I can only hope that current threats to the magnificence of the views are dispelled this year.